The learners were empowered with practical digital literacy, computer application skills, introductory AI competencies, technical use and problem-solving skills aligned with competence-based curriculum and national digital transformation priorities.
Ninety-seven Primary Seven and Senior Four finalists have graduated from a six-week ICT and Artificial Intelligence (AI) training program which has been running from December 4, 2025 to January 9, 2026.
The training, a corporate social responsibility gesture, organized by Seeta Hill Secondary School located at Kyetume village in Nakisunga sub-county, Mukono district has equipped learners with practical digital literacy, computer application skills, and introductory AI competencies.
Patricia Athieno, one of the graduands told the parents that the training has changed their mindset towards AI. “This program has changed the way we think, the way we learn and the way we see our future. We have got skills of using AI in promoting businesses, education, research and creative industry, indeed, this has not been a wastage of time,” said Atheino, who is in Senior Four vacation.
She added; “After this training, because I learnt baking as one of the skills we got at school in the current competence-based curriculum, I used AI to create a logo and a brand name for my daddies which I am packing and looking for their market online.”
Emmanuel Kibira, a student said that he had bought the rumors that AI is going to take people’s jobs but after this training, he realized that that is false, adding that instead, the people who are AI competent are the ones going to take up jobs for other people who are not bothered about becoming AI complainant.
The Acting Commissioner in charge of National Guidance at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Jonah Jackson Bakalikwira emphasized the importance of introducing ICT and AI education at an early stage, stating that it would help young people use technology for productive purposes.
The program aligns with national digital transformation priorities and aims to address unemployment in Uganda. The learners were on Saturday awarded with certificates of completion Ag. Commissioner Bakalikwira.
The learners were empowered with practical digital literacy, computer application skills, introductory AI competencies, technical use and problem-solving skills aligned with competence-based curriculum and national digital transformation priorities.
According to the head teacher for Seeta Hill Secondary School Margaret Namutebi Kizito, the 97 lucky beneficiaries of the free training were randomly selected from areas within the vicinity of the school in Nakisunga sub-county, as a corporate social responsibility gesture to the parents of the area.
Namutebi said that the school management believed that engaging the learners during the long vacation to profitably benefit through acquisition of modern technological skills would be a much better option to leaving them to loiter aimlessly and in the process be exposed to avenues of getting contaminated by immoral groups.
Handing over the certificates, Ag. Commissioner Bakalikwira observed that introduction of primary school leavers to ICT and AI use is testimony that the system is a very essential component that needs to be incorporated in the country’s education system at an earlier stage than Ugandans believe.
He noted that today, children pick their parents’ phones and use them unguided, noting however that if they were guided earlier, they would use the phones for purposes of improvement of livelihoods in families and communities instead of visiting pornographic sites.
“As a ministry, this is the direction we have always encouraged, and Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has been moving around secondary schools distributing computers for this reason; the preferred ‘modus operandi’ should be that communities are the prime beneficiaries of use of these gadgets. I therefore commend Seeta Hill for going a step ahead by introducing the programme to primary school leavers,” Bakalikwira pointed out.
The occasion was graced by the Assistant Commissioner at the Public Service Commission David Ocheng who thanked management of the school for demonstrating that knowledge can be applied to solve community issues, and added that this is a step towards addressing the perennial unemployment vice in the country.
Elaborating, Ocheng said that times were there when completion of a vocation training course, a job was already waiting for a finalist, and that by the late 1990s and early 2000s, an advertisement for a job in hard-to-reach and hard-to-work areas could not attract any response, adding, “even with government service points like schools or hospitals present, the advertiser could hardly attract a response”.
He however disclosed that in the last government recruitment, they received over 81,000 applicants for 270 positions, and that 20,000 of these were assessed using AI tools that are part of the tools that young people have been exposed to, meaning that the day’s awards are coming to beneficiaries after some work has been done.
Commenting on the development, Daniel Kamya Ntambi, a parent in the area, noted that the school has proved itself to be a crucial asset in the development of the area, and added that today, many people can neither operate a laptop nor withdraw money from a bank using an ATM card.
Prof. Gideon Nkurunziza who is the chairman of the school board of governors, said the school managers are walking with their heads high for having been contributors to the national priorities particularly job creation in this generation.
“The world is looking at AI and technological change and nobody can afford to stay aloof from this development, and this is what drew us to get closer to communities,” Prof. Nkurunziza said.
